Cloud data backup storage

ABSTRACT

Techniques for cloud data backup are disclosed. Example methods may store backup data from a client computer on portions of data storage media associated with peer computers. In some example embodiments, a file may be encoded into segments using an error-tolerant encoding scheme, and the segments may be stored on peer computers. In some example embodiments, individual segments may be stored on more than one peer machine and/or an individual peer machine may not receive all of the segments associated with the file.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/551,790, filed Sep. 1, 2009, issued Feb. 5, 2013 as U.S. Pat. No.8,370,307, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure is directed to data backup and, moreparticularly, to cloud data backup.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other features of the present disclosure will becomemore fully apparent from the following description and appended claims,taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Understanding thatthese drawings depict only several embodiments in accordance with thedisclosure and, therefore, are not to be considered limiting of itsscope, the disclosure will be described with additional specificity anddetail through use of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example data backup storage cloud;

FIG. 2 is a simplified signal flow diagram depicting data flowassociated with a client computer in an example data backup storagecloud;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting an example method of backing updata;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative method of operatinga client computer in an example data backup cloud;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative method of operatinga cloud data backup system; and

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device thatmay be arranged for cloud data backup implementations, all configured inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented here. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe Figures, may be arranged, substituted, combined, and designed in awide variety of different configurations, all of which are explicitlycontemplated and make part of this disclosure.

This disclosure is drawn, inter alia, to methods and systems related todata backup and, more particularly, to cloud data backup.

The present disclosure contemplates that data backup may be useful inmany contexts, such as in enterprise computing systems. Developing andmaintaining data backup strategies for computers, such as desktopcomputers, may be a complex and/or expensive task, particularly in alarge enterprise context. In some enterprise computing systems, usersmay store critical data on local PCs (personal computers, such asdesktop computers, laptop computers, and/or tablet computers) and thedata may be periodically backed up to guard against data loss resultingfrom the failure of a low-reliability PC. For example, backup data maybe copied from individual PCs to a central backup server. However, toprevent a failure in the backup server from causing a catastrophic lossof data, the backup server may incorporate a high degree of redundancyand may provide high availability. This may involve potentiallyexpensive RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks, which may includea system of multiple hard drives for sharing or replicating data)storage systems and/or redundant servers with potentially expensivebackup power supplies. These systems may have substantial performancebottlenecks, including limited network bandwidth. Also, to provideappropriate read/write bandwidth in a disk storage system, backupservers may use a large number of relatively small, high-speed drives.This may involve a much higher cost per unit of data storage thanhigh-volume, low-cost drives that may be supplied with PCs. Centralizedbackup servers may also introduce some risk of data loss due to physicaldamage (fire, flood, etc.) if they are in a single location. Further,centralized backup servers may pose a risk of physical data theft unlessthe data is reliably encrypted.

The present disclosure contemplates that some computer systems, such asenterprise computer systems (and/or other networked computer systems),may include a great abundance of available storage in the form of theunused capacity in the individual data storage devices installed incomputers associated with the system. For example, a single platter onan example 3.5″ drive may store 320 GB, which may be far more than atypical office worker utilizes for personal storage, especially ifpolicies limit the use of employer PCs for personal use. Further,terabyte disks for desktop machines are available and may soon becomecommon. Thus, the present disclosure contemplates that the unusedstorage capacity in the data storage devices of computers on a networkmay be utilized for storage of backup data.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some examples, a cloud data backup storage manager may use a networkto store user backup data on a plurality of client computers. In someexamples, a cloud data backup storage manager may restore user datausing a network to access backed up data at a plurality of clientcomputers. Cloud backup reduces the risk of physical data theft, usesotherwise unused available storage in the form of unused capacity in theindividual data storage devices installed in the computers associatedwith the system, and prevents catastrophic loss of data, among otherdisclosed advantages.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example backup data storage cloud100 according to the present disclosure. A plurality of client computers110, 128, 142 (which may include personal computers such as PCs andwhich may be considered to be peers in some example embodiments) may beoperatively connected via a network 102, such as an intranet, theInternet, and/or any other form of a wired and/or wireless data network.Unique client identifiers (UCIs) 112, 130, 144 may be associated withand/or may uniquely identify client computers 110, 128, 142. Clientcomputers 110, 128, 142 may include one or more data storage devices114, 132, 146 (e.g., hard drives and/or any other removable and/ornonremovable data storage media). Some data storage devices 114, 132,146 may include one or more cloud storage partitions 116, one or morelocal storage partitions 118, one or more cloud storage files 134, localdata 136, 152, and/or cloud data 150. Client computers 110, 128, 142 mayinclude locally stored files 120, 124, 138, 154 on data storage devices114, 132, 146. Unique file identifiers (UFIs) 122, 126, 140, 156 may beassociated with and/or may uniquely identify locally stored files 120,124, 138, 154. One or more backup copies of locally stored files 120,124, 138, 154 and/or portions thereof may be stored on one or more datastorage devices 114, 132, 146 associated with another client computer110, 128, 142. For example, cloud storage partition 116 associated withclient computer 110 may include file segment 138A (with USI 140A) andfile segment 154B (with USI 156B), which may include portions of locallystored files 138, 154. Likewise, cloud storage file 134 associated withclient computer 128 may include file segments 120A, 154A (with USIs122A, 156A) and file 124, and cloud data 150 associated with clientcomputer 142 may include file segments 120B, 138B (with USIs 122B, 140B)and file 124. A cloud storage manager 158 may be operatively connectedto individual client computers 110, 128, 142 via network 102 and/or maybe responsive to requests from users, for example.

In an example embodiment, a data backup storage cloud 100 may use one ormore client computers' hard drives 114, 132, 146 (and/or any other datastorage media) throughout an enterprise computing system (and/or anyother networked computer system) to store backup data associated withfiles 120, 124, 138, 154 stored locally on individual client computers'hard drives 114, 132, 146. In this manner, an example embodiment mayemploy a software-based backup solution that may utilize existingstorage, existing distributed networks, and/or existing computers toprovide reliable and secure backups.

In some example embodiments, a storage device 114, 132, 146 (e.g., ahard drive) associated with an individual client computer 110, 128, 142may be partitioned into local storage 118 and cloud storage 116. Thismay be accomplished by physical and/or logical partitioning of the datastorage device 114, by creating one or more cloud files (such as cloudstorage file 134 on data storage device 132), or by any other method ofallocating storage capacity statically or dynamically between local andcloud storage. An example cloud file 134 may include backup data 120A,124, 154A associated with one or more files stored locally on anotherclient computer 110, 142, but may be stored on an individual clientcomputer 128 as a single file 134 or a portion thereof. A local storagepartition 118 and/or local storage data 136, 152 may be available to auser of an individual client computer 110, 128, 142 in a conventionalmanner. Further, in some example embodiments, one or more clientcomputers 110, 128, 142 may include one or more dedicated cloud storagedevices (e.g., hard drives).

In some example embodiments, various operations of a data backup storagecloud 100 may be managed by a cloud storage manager 158. Similarly, insome example embodiments, one or more client computers 110, 128, 142 maybe configured to run a cloud storage manager service which may beresponsive to requests from the network, such as by using an opennetwork port dedicated to that service. The cloud storage manager may bereplicated or distributed in order to avoid a single point of failure.

In an example embodiment, unique client identifiers (UCIs) 112, 130, 144may be associated with and/or may uniquely identify individual clientcomputer 110, 128, 142. For example, the MAC (media access control)address of the primary Ethernet port of a client computer 110, 128, 142may be used as a unique client identifier. Similarly, the uniqueprocessor ID of the first processor may be used. These potential uniqueclient identifiers are merely illustrative and are not limiting, and anyother appropriate identifier may be utilized in example embodiments. Insome example embodiments, the UCI 112, 130, 144 may be securely recordedin a location separate from the client machine 110, 128, 142 to assistin data recovery in the event that the client 110, 128, 142 isdestroyed.

In an example embodiment, unique file identifiers (UFIs) 122, 126, 140,156 may be associated with and/or may uniquely identify individual files120, 124, 138, 154. For example, this information may be available fromthe file system, such as the complete file path on the client computer110, 128, 142. The UFI 122, 126, 140, 156 may include a versionindication (such as a timestamp indicating the last modification time)that may identify a unique version of the file. These potential uniquefile identifiers are merely illustrative and are not limiting, andexample embodiments may utilize any appropriate identifiers. An exampleUFI may include data associated with a UCI 112, 130, 144, and/or anyother identifying information. In some embodiments, unique fileidentifiers may comprise unique numbers from a sequence which may berequested from the cloud storage manager, cloud storage manager service,or any other computer providing an identifier service. In someembodiments, unique file identifiers may be generated from the localfile system volume ID and the file creation time, for example. In someembodiments, unique file identifiers may be assigned to the filesequentially at the time of file creation.

In an example embodiment, a unique segment identifier (USI) 122A, 122B,140A, 140B, 156A, 156B may be associated with and/or may uniquelyidentify individual file segments 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B, 154A, 154B. Anexample USI 122A, 122B, 140A, 140B, 156A, 156B may include dataassociated with a UCI 112, 130, 144, a UFI 122, 126, 140, 156, and/orany other identifying information.

FIG. 2 is a simplified signal flow diagram depicting example data flowassociated with a client computer 110 in an example data backup storagecloud 100. In an example embodiment, a client computer 110 may transmita request for storage blocks to the cloud storage manager 158. The cloudstorage manager 158 may reserve and/or assign storage blocks, and maytransmit the assignment to the client computer 110. The client computer110 may transmit one or more files 124 and/or file segments 120A, 1208to one or more peer computers 128, 142. These files 124 and/or filesegments 120A, 120B may be copies (backups) of files/segments existingon the client computer 110. Similarly, a client computer 110 may receivebackup data in the form of one or more file segments 138A, 154A and/orfiles from one or more peer computers 128, 142.

In an example embodiment, an individual client computer 110 may initiatea backup operation for copying one or more local files 120, 124 forbackup to one or more peer machines 128, 142 in the cloud 100. A set offiles to be backed up may be identified, such as a set of folders and/orpartitions, files created after a certain date, files modified since thelast backup, and/or using any other criteria that a user, anadministrator, and/or the system may establish.

In an example embodiment, one or more files may be encoded into aredundant, error-tolerant format including K segments, where K is aninteger greater than one. Any suitable error prevention technique may beemployed. For example, each byte of a file may be encoded into a 12-bitHamming-type code that may tolerate multiple bit errors. Thus, the filemay be formed into 12 segments, where individual segments may includeone bit from each byte in the original file. In some exampleembodiments, other suitable encoding mechanisms such as Reed-Solomoncodes, Turbo codes, etc. may be used. Each segment may also include anerror-checking code, such as a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) or similarsignature field that may be checked to determine internal integrity. Thepresent disclosure contemplates that details about error detection andcorrection codes can be found, for example, in “The Art of ErrorCorrecting Coding” by Robert H. Morelos-Zaragoza.

In an example embodiment, a redundancy factor R may be established basedon the stability, availability, and/or variability of the machines inthe cloud 100. The redundancy factor R may be employed to determine thenumber of redundant copies of each backup file or segment that may bestored in the backup data storage cloud 100. For example, in a stable,highly reliable computer system, a redundancy factor of two may beutilized, thus indicating that locally stored files 120, 124, 138, 154may be backed up on two peer computers 110, 128, 142. Similarly, in acomputing system which may be unreliable and/or in which some peerdevices 110, 128, 142 may become unavailable, a redundancy factor of tenmay be utilized to increase the probability that at least one backupcopy of each file or segment will be available if data restoration isrequired.

In an example embodiment, a client 110, 128, 142 may send a request toone or more cloud storage managers 158 and/or peer computers 110, 128,142, requesting reservation and/or assignment of at least R*K storageblocks of an appropriate size. The request may be made using anyappropriate mechanism, such as peer-to-peer communication methods(similar to BitTorrent, etc.), broadcast messages, a centralized cloudserver that maintains and provides a list of candidates, a locallymanaged list of candidates, a pre-established set of candidates, and/ora distributed system by which one of the prior methods can be used torequest lists of candidates.

In an example embodiment, a client 110, 128, 142 may receive anacknowledgement indicating that storage blocks have been assigned forits backup operation. An example acknowledgement may include identifyinginformation, such as UCIs 112, 130, 144 for the relevant peers. If fewerthan R*K segments are assigned, the client computer 110, 128, 142 maytransmit additional requests and/or compare the number of segments toP*K, where P<R and where P may be an adequate, but less desirableredundancy factor. Similarly, If fewer than R peers are assigned, theclient computer 110, 128, 142 may transmit additional requests and/orcompare the number of peers to P, where P<R and where P may be anadequate, but less desirable redundancy factor. In either such case, theactual number of peers assigned can be used instead of the value R inthe disclosed systems and methods.

In an example embodiment, the client computer 110, 128, 142 may send toindividual peers 110, 128, 142 one or more of the K segments accompaniedby a USI, a UFI, and/or a UCI, such that R copies of each segment may bestored on different peer computers 110, 128, 142. These segments may bestored by the peers 110, 128, 142 and successful completion of thestorage operation may be reported.

In accordance with the present disclosure, some example embodiments mayprovide redundancy via duplication (storing backup data on R peers)and/or via error correction (individual files and/or segments mayinclude error-correcting code). Thus, in some example embodiments, ifone of the peer computers 110, 128, 142 becomes unavailable, the datamay be reconstructed without data loss.

In an example embodiment, if any transfer is not acknowledged, it may beretried until successful, sent to another peer 110, 128, 142 (which maybe requested and/or reserved), and/or may determined to be sacrificial(for example, where P copies of that segment have been acknowledged).

In an example embodiment, the requesting and storing may be repeated fora plurality of files and/or for a plurality of client computers 110,128, 142.

In an example embodiment, to recover a file, the backup cloud 100 may bequeried using a query which may include a UFI 122, 126, 140, 156, a USI122A, 122B, 140A, 1408, 156A, 1568, and/or a UCI 112, 130, 144, forexample. Cloud peers 110, 128, 142 may respond that they have one ormore files 124 and/or file segments 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B, 154A, 154B,and may provide the UFIs 126 and/or USIs 122A, 122B, 140A, 140B, 156A,156B. The segments 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B, 154A, 154B may be provided tothe client computer 110, 128, 142 proactively and/or upon the request ofthe client computer 110, 128, 142. In some example embodiments, the CRCor other integrity check of each segment may be verified.

In an example embodiment, a copy of each of the K segments 120A, 1208,138A, 138B, 154A, 154B may be reassembled into the original file 120,138, 154. If any segment 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B, 154A, 154B may not berecovered in a timely manner, the error correction code may be used toreconstruct the file without the missing segment 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B,154A, 154B.

In an alternative example embodiment, individual files 120, 124, 138,154 may be broken into a sequence of blocks (subfiles). Each subfile maybe deconstructed into segments as described above. The subfile segmentsmay be stored on cloud machines as described above. Various segmentsrelated to a file may be stored on different clients. USIs may identifythe place in the original file where the segment belongs. The originalfile may be reassembled from the various subfile segments.

An example embodiment may perform a cloud availability scrubbingfunction, and, in some embodiments, a client computer 110, 128, 142 mayinclude a cloud availability scrubber for ensuring that adequate copiesof individual file segments 120A, 120B, 138A, 138B, 154A, 154B areavailable on the cloud 100. An example cloud availability scrubber may,for individual files of interest from the set of files stored in thecloud, query the cloud to determine the number of accessible andverifiable copies of individual segments. If any segment does not have Ravailable copies, the scrubber may request and reserve space foradditional copies and/or may create additional copies on the cloud sothat R copies are currently available.

In some example embodiments, encryption may be used on the files,segments, and/or on the network links. For example, encryption may beemployed in an example embodiment utilized in connection with a network102 that may not be acceptably secure.

In some example embodiments, a cloud storage manager 158 and/or a cloudstorage manager service running on a client computer 110, 128, 142 mayimplement a security scheme such as a password, a query-responseprocess, a decryption key, and/or another authentication protocolsbefore responding to queries.

In some example embodiments, a central and/or distributed database maybe maintained to track the location of individual files and/or segments.Such a database may be utilized in place of or in addition to taggingeach file and/or segment. Such a database may be maintained by the cloudstorage manager 158, for example.

In some example embodiments, a two-dimensional and/or amulti-dimensional encoding scheme may be utilized in addition to or inplace of using replication along with an error code. In such a case, ascrubbing process may restore an encoded segment (rather than restoringcopies) and a reconstruction process may reconstruct a file from theavailable pieces of the encoded file rather than copies of theindividual segments. In such an embodiment, the individual bits or datawords (e.g., fixed-sized groups of that are handled together by thecomputer) of one or more segments may be arranged in an array of 2 ormore dimensions. Error correction codes may be created along each axisof this array. The resulting array, including the original data and theerror correction data may then be repartitioned into segments to bedistributed among clients. In some embodiments, this repartitioning maytake place along a different array axis for each of several redundantcopies. If a portion of this data is lost, it may be reconstructed usingerror correction codes from an orthogonal axis of the data array.Similarly, a scrubbing process may repeatedly reconstruct lost datausing this method and may reallocate storage for the reconstructed data.

In some example embodiments, individual clients (other than theoriginator of a file) may not store a complete copy of an individualfile. Thus, even with advanced decryption technology, an individualclient may not be able to obtain a complete copy of the file. In someexample embodiments, this aspect may reduce the importance of encryptionbecause, even without encryption, individual peers may be unable toreconstruct a complete copy of the file.

In some example embodiments, an originator of a file may not need toknow on which other client computers the backup data may be stored.Similarly, in some example embodiments, client computers designated toreceive the backup data may be chosen automatically. Thus, a user of aclient computer originating a file may not need to authorize or identifyparticular backup storage providers. In some example embodiments, all orsubstantially all client computers within a network or sub-network maybe available to store backup data.

In some example embodiments, backup files on remote computers may bestored on partitions that may not be readily accessible and/or managedby the users of that computer (other than a system administrator). Insome example embodiments, such an aspect may be implemented in anenterprise computing environment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram depicting an example method of backing up dataperformed by a client computer. Operation 202 may include identifying atleast one file to be backed up, where the file is stored locally on aclient computer. Operation 204 may include encoding the file into K filesegments, where K is an integer greater than one. Operation 206 mayinclude requesting at least R*K storage blocks on a plurality of peercomputers, where R is a redundancy factor. Operation 208 may includetransmitting individual segments from the client computer to theplurality of peer computers such that each of the K segments is storedon at least R peer computers.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative method of operatinga client computer in an example data backup cloud. Operation 302 mayidentify a file for backup, the file being associated with a unique fileidentifier. Operation 304 may separate the file into K file segments,where K is an integer greater than one, where individual segments areassociated with unique segment identifiers, and where no single segmentincludes the complete file. Operation 306 may transmit the segments to aplurality of peer computers such that no single peer computer receivesall K segments associated with the file and such that individualsegments are received by at least R peer computers, where R is aredundancy factor. Operation 308 may receive from the peer computers atleast some of the segments associated with the file. Operation 310reconstruct the file, based upon at least the unique file identifier andthe unique segment identifier, from the received segments.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative method of operatinga cloud data backup system. Operation 402 may identify a file storedlocally on a client computer for backup. Operation 404 may create aplurality of file segments from the file, where individual segmentsinclude less than the complete file, and where individual segmentsinclude error-detecting code. Operation 406 may transmit individualsegments from the client computer to a plurality of peer computers suchthat individual segments are stored on at least R peer computers, whereR is a redundancy factor, and where fewer than all of the segments aretransmitted to individual peer computers.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device 900that is arranged for cloud data backup in accordance with the presentdisclosure. In a very basic configuration 901, computing device 900typically includes one or more processors 910 and system memory 920. Amemory bus 930 can be used for communicating between the processor 910and the system memory 920.

Depending on the desired configuration, processor 910 can be of any typeincluding but not limited to a microprocessor (μP), a microcontroller(μC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or any combination thereof.Processor 910 can include one more levels of caching, such as a levelone cache 911 and a level two cache 912, a processor core 913, andregisters 914. The processor core 913 can include an arithmetic logicunit (ALU), a floating point unit (FPU), a digital signal processingcore (DSP Core), or any combination thereof. A memory controller 915 canalso be used with the processor 910, or in some implementations thememory controller 915 can be an internal part of the processor 910.

Depending on the desired configuration, the system memory 920 can be ofany type including but not limited to volatile memory (such as RAM),non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or any combinationthereof. System memory 920 typically includes an operating system 921,one or more applications 922, and program data 924. Application 922includes a cloud data backup storage algorithm 923 that is arranged tostore backup data in a data backup cloud. Program Data 924 includescloud data backup storage data 925 that is useful for backing up data ina cloud backup data storage implementation, as will be further describedbelow. In some embodiments, application 922 can be arranged to operatewith program data 924 on an operating system 921 such that backup datamay be stored on a backup data storage cloud. This described basicconfiguration is illustrated in FIG. 6 by those components within dashedline 901.

Computing device 900 can have additional features or functionality, andadditional interfaces to facilitate communications between the basicconfiguration 901 and any required devices and interfaces. For example,a bus/interface controller 940 can be used to facilitate communicationsbetween the basic configuration 901 and one or more data storage devices950 via a storage interface bus 941. The data storage devices 950 can beremovable storage devices 951, non-removable storage devices 952, or acombination thereof. Examples of removable storage and non-removablestorage devices include magnetic disk devices such as flexible diskdrives and hard-disk drives (HDD), optical disk drives such as compactdisk (CD) drives or digital versatile disk (DVD) drives, solid statedrives (SSD), and tape drives to name a few. Example computer storagemedia can include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removablemedia implemented in any method or technology for storage ofinformation, such as computer readable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data.

System memory 920, removable storage 951 and non-removable storage 952are all examples of computer storage media. Computer storage mediaincludes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or othermemory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or otheroptical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which canbe used to store the desired information and which can be accessed bycomputing device 900. Any such computer storage media can be part ofdevice 900.

Computing device 900 can also include an interface bus 942 forfacilitating communication from various interface devices (e.g., outputinterfaces, peripheral interfaces, and communication interfaces) to thebasic configuration 901 via the bus/interface controller 940. Exampleoutput devices 960 include a graphics processing unit 961 and an audioprocessing unit 962, which can be configured to communicate to variousexternal devices such as a display or speakers via one or more A/V ports963. Example peripheral interfaces 970 include a serial interfacecontroller 971 or a parallel interface controller 972, which can beconfigured to communicate with external devices such as input devices(e.g., keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touch input device,etc.) or other peripheral devices (e.g., printer, scanner, etc.) via oneor more I/O ports 973. An example communication device 980 includes anetwork controller 981, which can be arranged to facilitatecommunications with one or more other computing devices 990 over anetwork communication via one or more communication ports 982. Thecommunication connection is one example of a communication media.Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism, and includes any information delivery media. A “modulateddata signal” can be a signal that has one or more of its characteristicsset or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.By way of example, and not limitation, communication media can includewired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, andwireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR) andother wireless media. The term computer readable media as used hereincan include both storage media and communication media.

Computing device 900 can be implemented as a portion of a small-formfactor portable (or mobile) electronic device such as a cell phone, apersonal data assistant (PDA), a personal media player device, awireless web-watch device, a personal headset device, an applicationspecific device, or a hybrid device that include any of the abovefunctions. Computing device 900 can also be implemented as a personalcomputer including both laptop computer and non-laptop computerconfigurations.

The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates differentcomponents contained within, or connected with, different othercomponents. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures aremerely examples, and that in fact many other architectures may beimplemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense,any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality iseffectively “associated” such that the desired functionality isachieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve aparticular functionality may be seen as “associated with” each othersuch that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective ofarchitectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components soassociated may also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or“operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality,and any two components capable of being so associated may also be viewedas being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desiredfunctionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but arenot limited to physically mateable and/or physically interactingcomponents and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interactingcomponents and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactablecomponents.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singularterms herein, those having skill in the art may translate from theplural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as isappropriate to the context and/or application. The varioussingular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sakeof clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if aspecific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such anintent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence ofsuch recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “atleast one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use ofdefinite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, evenif a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitlyrecited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitationshould typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number(e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without othermodifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or morerecitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in generalsuch a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where aconvention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, ingeneral such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill inthe art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at leastone of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that haveA alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood toinclude the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopeand spirit being indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method by a cloud storage manager computingdevice to manage backup data storage, the method comprising: receiving,by the cloud storage manager computing device, a request from arequesting computing device for assignment of R*K storage blocks,wherein K is an integer greater than one and wherein at least one file,from the requesting computing device, to be backed up is encoded into Kfile segments, and wherein R is a redundancy factor; assigning, by thecloud storage manager computing device, at least R candidate computingdevices to store at least one of the K file segments, wherein the atleast R candidate computing devices comprise a cloud storage partitionthat is accessible by the requesting computing device; and sending anacknowledgement, by the cloud storage manager computing device to therequesting computing device, that the at least R candidate computingdevices have been assigned to store the at least one of the K filesegments in the cloud storage partition.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein said assigning includes assigning, by the cloud storage managercomputing device, a plurality of the R candidate computing devices torespectively store fewer than all of the K file segments.
 3. The methodof claim 1 wherein said assigning includes assigning, by the cloudstorage manager computing device, the at least R candidate computingdevices such that each of the K file segments is stored on at least Rcandidate node computing devices.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein saidreceiving the request from the requesting computing device includesreceiving the request from a client computing device, and wherein saidassigning at least R candidate computing devices includes assigning atleast one candidate client computing device.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising, identifying, by the cloud storage manager computingdevice, the R assigned computing devices by respective unique clientidentifiers.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the R candidatecomputing devices includes the cloud storage manager computing device.7. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving includes receiving therequest, by the cloud storage manager computing device, via apeer-to-peer communication method.
 8. A cloud storage manager computingapparatus, comprising: at least one communication device to receive arequest from a requester computing device for assignment of R*K storageblocks, wherein K is an integer greater than one and wherein at leastone file, from the requester computing device, to be backed up isencoded into K file segments, and wherein R is a redundancy factor; astorage device to store a list of candidate computing devices that havea cloud storage partition usable by the requester computing device forbackup storage; and a processor coupled to the at least onecommunication device and to the storage device to assign, from thestored list, at least R candidate computing devices to store at leastone of the K file segments, and to control the at least onecommunication device to send an acknowledgement, to the requestercomputing device, that the at least R candidate computing devices havebeen assigned to store the at least one of the K file segments in thecloud storage partition.
 9. The cloud storage manager computingapparatus of claim 8 wherein the processor is configured to assign theplurality of the R candidate computing devices to respectively storefewer than all of the K file segments.
 10. The cloud storage managercomputing apparatus of claim 8 wherein the processor is configured toassign the at least R candidate computing devices such that each of theK file segments is stored on at least R candidate computing devices. 11.The cloud storage manager computing apparatus of claim 8 wherein the atleast one communication device is configured to receive the request froma client computing device, and wherein the processor is configured toassign at least one candidate client computing device to store at leastone of the K file segments.
 12. The cloud storage manager computingapparatus of claim 8, wherein the at least one communication deviceincludes a wireless communication interface.
 13. The cloud storagemanager computing apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor isconfigured to respectively identify the R assigned computing devices byunique client identifiers.
 14. A non-transitory storage mediumcomprising machine-readable instructions stored thereon, which, inresponse to execution by one or more processing units, operativelyenable a computing platform to: identify a request, received from arequester computing device, to assign R*K storage blocks for backupstorage, wherein K is an integer greater than one and wherein at leastone file, from the requester computing device, to be backed up isencoded into K file segments, and wherein R is a redundancy factor;maintain a stored list of candidate computing devices that have a cloudstorage partition usable by the requester computing device for thebackup storage, the list including at least R candidate node computingdevices to store at least one of the K file segments; assign, from thestored list, the at least R candidate computing devices to store atleast one of the K file segments; and send an acknowledgement, to therequester computing device, that the at least R candidate computingdevices have been assigned to store the at least one of the K filesegments in the cloud storage partition.
 15. The non-transitory storagemedium of claim 14 wherein the instructions that operatively enable thecomputing platform to said assign include instructions that operativelyenable the computing platform to assign a plurality of the R candidatecomputing devices to respectively store fewer than all of the K filesegments.
 16. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14 wherein theinstructions that operatively enable the computing platform to saidassign include instructions that operatively enable the computingplatform to assign the at least R candidate computing devices such thateach of the K file segments is stored on at least R candidate computingdevices.
 17. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 14 wherein theinstructions that operatively enable the computing platform to identifythe request, received from the requester computing device, includeinstructions that operatively enable the computing platform to identifythe request as being received from a client computing device; andwherein the instructions that operatively enable the computing platformto assign the at least R candidate computing devices includeinstructions that operatively enable the computing platform to assign atleast one candidate client computing device.
 18. The non-transitorystorage medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions that operativelyenable the computing platform to maintain a stored list of candidatecomputing devices include instructions that operatively enable thecomputing platform to associate each of the candidate computing devicesto unique client identifiers; and wherein the instructions thatoperatively enable the computing platform to send the acknowledgement,to the requester computing device, that the at least R candidatecomputing devices have been assigned include instructions thatoperatively enable the computing platform to identify the at least Rcandidate computing devices by their associated unique clientidentifiers.
 19. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 17, whereinthe instructions that operatively enable the computing platform toidentify the request include instructions that operatively enable thecomputing platform to identify a request received via a peer-to-peercommunication method.